


Falling Awake

by AshenDay



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Smut, Friends to Lovers, Gaara & Uzumaki Naruto Friendship, Gaara is an amazing friend, Happy Ending, Kurama is a baby fox, Light Angst, Lots of confusion, M/M, Modern AU, Not in the conventional sense, Not much drama tho, Shukaku is a Tanuki, Uchiha Sasuke & Uzumaki Naruto Friendship, roommates au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-07
Updated: 2020-08-07
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:13:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25766518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AshenDay/pseuds/AshenDay
Summary: The realisation that he was in love with his best friend dawned on him on a sleepy Saturday morning.It was unhurried and leisurely, as if were something that had been waiting for Naruto to reach out and catch—and perhaps that’s exactly what it had been.-Naruto can’t handle his feelings about his best friend, and Sasuke is confused.
Relationships: Uchiha Sasuke/Uzumaki Naruto
Comments: 13
Kudos: 60





	Falling Awake

**Author's Note:**

> Not much to say about this fic- it's a little angsty, a little cute. I love seeing NaruSasu in a modern AU setting as friends so here we go. Enjoy!
> 
> -Ashen

The realisation that he was in love with his best friend dawned on him on a sleepy Saturday morning.

It was unhurried and leisurely, as if were something that had been waiting for Naruto to reach out and catch—and perhaps that’s exactly what it had been. Sasuke handed him his cup of coffee, sweetened to exactly Naruto’s taste—even though Sasuke never held back on his disgust for _candy caffeine_ —with a gentle tap to Naruto’s head as the blond blinked sleepily, and as his best friend came into focus in Naruto’s lethargic brain, he took in mussed, dark locks and an oversized t-shirt, and realised, _holy shit, I’m in love with him._

There were no angels singing. The heavens didn’t open up, and Naruto’s heart didn’t race. It was just the two of them, like it had always been, Sasuke’s hair unkempt in a way that Naruto knew only he got to see, and Naruto staring at him like he was a particularly interesting fish at the aquarium. 

“Dobe,” Sasuke raised an eyebrow, and Naruto wondered how he managed to look so elegant in the middle of their dingy little kitchen at seven in the morning. “You’re staring.”

“Sorry,” Naruto said automatically, and his friend sighed, but didn’t question it, taking a sip of his coffee instead. 

“We need to get a new couch,” Sasuke reminded him, and Naruto nodded, swallowing slightly. There was something about the domesticity of the entire morning, about Sasuke’s words, that threw him off-kilter. It was nothing new, nothing unusual, but suddenly it felt like it. “We can grab lunch while we’re at it.”

“You’re paying, then.”

Sasuke snorted, not unkindly. “You wish, asshole.”

Naruto grinned at him. The smile was easy, practiced, and he could see the corners of Sasuke’s lips twitch upwards in return. Suddenly warm around his neck, Naruto looked down and stared into his coffee. The froth had dissipated, leaving him to stare at his reflection. He frowned slightly. 

“Idiot.”

Naruto looked up, trying not to let his confusion show on his face. “What?”

“What’s wrong?” Sasuke asked, putting his coffee down and leaning back to stare at Naruto. There was no hiding from that gaze—those eyes saw everything, right into Naruto and through him, down to the bone. “You’re being quiet.”

The question was matter-of-fact, straightforward. Another thing he loved about Sasuke, he realised. It was a thought that didn’t help his predicament in the least. 

“I’m just tired,” Naruto lied, throwing him an easy grin and taking a long sip of his coffee. “I was up last night finishing an assignment—“

“On the weekend?” Sasuke asked, and there was just no hiding from him. Naruto cursed internally. Sasuke could read him like an open book—not that Naruto had ever tried to hide anything from him. For the many years they’d known each other, Naruto had worn his heart on his sleeve, there for Sasuke’s taking. His friend had taken a while to respond in kind, but nobody could deny that there was nothing that Sasuke didn’t tell Naruto. “You’re a terrible liar, usuratonkachi.”

 _Fuck._ Naruto shrugged, out of excuses, and thankfully Sasuke dropped it, though his eyes remained sharp. There was a quiet pause, before Sasuke stood to put his empty cup in the sink, gently resting his hand on Naruto’s head before making his way back to his own room. 

It was nothing new, and yet, _everything_ was new. Naruto sat there, staring at his coffee until it turned lukewarm.

-

Naruto knew that Sasuke had noticed that something was off. 

It was in the way that he let his hand linger on his head, in the way the pokes on his forehead became more frequent and gentle. It was in the way that he knocked on Naruto’s bedroom door in the evening with the excuse of “I’m bored” to spend time with him, even when all that came of it was Naruto talking his ear off about everything and nothing. It all culminated with a very surprised Naruto waking up the next weekend to Sasuke at his door, holding a breakfast tray with two helpings of waffles and coffee. 

“Not that I don’t appreciate this,” Naruto said, sitting up as Sasuke seated himself at the foot of his bed, delicately balancing the tray on Naruto’s knees. “But what’s the occasion?”

Sasuke glared at him, but there was no bite to it. “I know there’s something you’re not telling me, so I’m trying to bribe it out of you.”

That made Naruto laugh—Sasuke really didn’t beat around the bush, and really didn’t see the point of lying. It was something that had reeled Naruto in the first time they had met, and it was something that hadn’t changed at all, much to his relief. 

“It’s a great attempt,” Naruto admitted, waving the fork dangerously close to Sasuke’s face and nearly plucking his eye out. “But I’m not going to tell you.”

“So there _is_ something on your mind.”

“I never said that!”

“You’re a terrible liar,” Sasuke snorted, yet again, and Naruto laughed, feeling more at ease than he had for a few days. 

“Maybe so, but you still love me,” he grinned, spearing a piece of the waffle out and holding it out to Sasuke. Without blinking, Sasuke leaned forward, wrapping his lips around the bite without breaking his stare. 

Naruto gulped. 

“Yeah,” Sasuke said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, taking a sip of his coffee. For a second, he looked almost distracted, but then his eyes focused on Naruto, his gaze sharpening. The piercing stare made Naruto feel naked, exposed. “I’m going to find out anyway, though.”

Naruto smiled, knowing it was Sasuke’s way of telling him that he cared. 

“I hope you do.”

-

“You should tell him,” Gaara said, raising a non-existent eyebrow at Naruto, who was moping on his floor. 

“What’s with you edgy kinds and just being straightforward?” Naruto groaned, rolling his eyes even though he was facing the floor. “It’s not something I can just tell him. What am I supposed to say? _Hey Sasuke, I know we’ve been friends for almost a decade but I’ve been in love with you this entire time?”_

“Exactly,” Gaara replied, with as much enthusiasm as Naruto had ever received from him. 

“I can’t—I cant just do that! What if he doesn’t like me back?”

“You won’t find out unless you ask,” the redhead said, and Naruto hated that what he was saying made sense. “Naruto, you’ve always been one to speak your mind. I don’t understand what’s holding you back now.”

Naruto rolled over so that he was facing the ceiling. The sun was setting, throwing dainty shades of red through the windows and onto the two friends. Gaara looked like a wise sage, sitting cross-legged on his couch, his expression peaceful and contemplative. 

“There’s just too much at risk,” Naruto explained, but Gaara shook his head almost immediately. 

“The reason I’m here today is because you decided to speak your mind to me, Naruto,” he said, serenely. “It’s something I’ll always be grateful for, and so will Sasuke. Both of us are where we are today because you told us the truth about what’s important to you.”

Naruto tilted his head. Gaara was smiling slightly, the light of the setting sun clashing with his hair. 

“You think so?” Naruto asked, softly, though he knew the answer. Gaara was succinct, quiet, truthful. He never said more than what needed to be said, and never less. 

“I know it,” he said, simply, and it was answer enough.

-

If only it were that easy. 

Gaara’s words didn’t leave his mind for the next few days—Naruto turned them over in his head until they were worn and frayed, and yet he couldn’t bring himself to speak to Sasuke about it. Every possible scenario that went through his mind ended in disaster, with Sasuke yelling at him, Sasuke becoming cold, Sasuke _leaving_. 

It just wasn’t something he could risk. Their friendship was carefully wrought over years, comfortable and yet delicate, built like stones balanced on lily pads. They had always been so starkly different that it was laughable that they could even stand each other, but there was always an invisible thread between them, and suddenly it felt like a taut string waiting to snap. 

Naruto could feel the air between them thin slowly as each day passed—the silences became more uncomfortable as hours passed while Naruto overthought and Sasuke stopped trying to push, instead opting to stare into the distance blankly or hole up in his room. Naruto often ran to his only solace—Gaara, of course—and left Sasuke alone in their dark little apartment. He knew that he was doing wrong by his friend, but the thoughts in his head were scrambled and half-formed, and he hadn’t much sensibility left of what was right and wrong. 

Things really started to go wrong, however, when Naruto started to become impulsive. 

It was no secret that he was spontaneous, bordering on reckless, but at the age of twenty even he usually had enough sense to keep an eye on his finances and balance it against his lifestyle. Granted, it took a little prodding from Gaara and a careful eye from Sasuke, but he was generally cautious enough to not go overboard and make irreparable decisions. 

At least, until now. 

It started small—a few extra nights of take-out which left his pockets lighter than was he was comfortable with, a couple of expensive coffees that Naruto didn’t quite understand the taste of. It was obvious that Sasuke had noticed, but instead of nagging Naruto, he kept his distance with a subtle and watchful eye, letting Naruto barrel down whatever road he had taken. Consequently, Naruto hadn’t realised that Sasuke really cared, until he narrowed his eyes as the blond hauled a huge, sealed cardboard box into their kitchen. 

“What’s this?” Sasuke asked, after a moment of silence, as Naruto grinned goofily at him, even though the Uchiha looked the furthest possible thing from amused. 

“A KitchenAid stand mixer!” Naruto proclaimed proudly, waiting for the smile to cross Sasuke’s face, but it never did. He couldn’t quite understand why—he had got it on a tempting discount. Sasuke, leaning against their kitchen counter, didn’t move, but his eyes narrowed and his body stiffened slightly. Quizzically, Naruto looked at him, realising for the first time that there were tired circles under his eyes. 

He just couldn’t figure out why. 

Sasuke paused for a long second, and then heaved a tired sigh, closing his eyes for a brief second. “And why is it in our kitchen?”

The smile dropped from the edges of Naruto’s lips. Sasuke was irritable at the best of times, but his tone was testier than usual, and Naruto had no idea what was bothering his friend. “I thought we could—we could use it to bake?”

“Naruto,” Sasuke said, his expression blank. “We don’t have a oven.”

Naruto froze. He hadn’t thought about that. 

“Uh,” he said, intelligently, scrambling for words, anything to take away that look from Sasuke’s eyes. “We can—“

“Save it,” Sasuke said, tiredly, pushing himself off the counter. Naruto watched him walk away towards his room, for once unsure of what to say. “Return it tomorrow. We don’t have the money to spend, and you should know better.”

Dumbfounded, Naruto watched as Sasuke’s door closed quietly, for the first time really wondering where things had started to go wrong.

-

Things may have resolved themselves, perhaps, if Naruto had not continued with his shenanigans, but he both lacked the awareness that he was doing something wrong, as well as the will to stop. 

Some part of him wanted Sasuke to get angry at him, to grab him by the shoulders and shake some sense into him. At this point, _anything_ would be better than the cold shoulder that his friend was giving him. Naruto wasn’t used to this kind of treatment, not even from Sasuke, who had always, in his own strange way, found a way to express his feelings to Naruto. 

And so, he continued, subconsciously waiting for Sasuke to snap. 

A long day of classes found Naruto trudging home alone, too tired to make a meal for himself but too bankrupt too treat himself to ramen, up the five flights to their apartment, to find Sasuke pulling a huge box out of the front door. 

Naruto perked up. “Is that our oven?”

“It’s not ours,” Sasuke said, his tone flat. He didn’t even bother to look at Naruto. “I’m going to go return it now.”

“Why?” Naruto asked, dumbfounded. Sasuke had pointed out that they couldn’t bake, for a lack of an oven, so Naruto had done the most obvious thing—bought one. 

“Because we don’t have the space or the money.” Sasuke’s tone was eerily emotionless, his face strangely blank, as if his mind was somewhere else altogether.

“But—“

Sasuke didn’t even acknowledge his protests, instead dragging the huge box down the staircase as Naruto watched. Part of him wanted to help his friend, but he doubted that Sasuke would appreciate it. 

“Sasuke, why—?”

For the first time in a few days, Sasuke looked him in the eye, straightening up and standing tall. His eyes were sharp, but almost...sad. 

“I don’t know, Naruto,” he said, and that gaze tore through Naruto’s very soul as he stood there on the tiny landing, the only warmth from the tiny lightbulb over his head. “You tell me.”

Sasuke continued his descent down the stairs, the dragging of the box the only sound in the evening. Quietly, Naruto watched him go.

-

It all came to a head one rainy night. 

“You are fucking _kidding_ me.”

“Isn’t he adorable?” Naruto cooed, peering into the little cardboard box as Sasuke stood six feet away, a safe distance from where Naruto was trying to coax the little fox cub from the corner of the box. “He’s so cute, look at him! Sasuke—“

“We are _not_ keeping him,” Sasuke bit out, and there was command to his voice—it was clearly an order, not meant to be disobeyed, but Naruto couldn’t contain his frown. 

“Why not? He was—“

“I don’t care.”

“Sasuke, his mother was—“

“I don’t care, Naruto. He’s not staying in this apartment.”

Naruto stared up at Sasuke from the floor. In the dim light of the living room, his friend looked nearly frightening. There was no hint of the smile that had been playing on his lips for the past few days. Naruto hadn’t realised that Sasuke would react this way when he’d found the little fox cub on the side of the street, next to his mother’s body. It had looked so scared, and alone, and Naruto hadn’t thought twice before picking him up and driving him home after tearily burying his mother. 

Naruto tried once again. “Sasuke, please—“

“Either he goes, or I do.”

It took a second for Naruto to absorb that. 

There was a heavy silence as the two friends stared at each other. The air was thick, as if it could be cut with a knife. Sasuke’s gaze was hard, and all the joy was gone from Naruto’s heart. He couldn’t have imagined that Sasuke would react with this much...anger. 

There was a squeak, and Naruto looked down to see the fox tugging on his sleeve with his teeth. 

An orphan. Just like him. 

“Okay,” he said, softly, even as rage slowly built up inside him. “We’ll be gone by the morning.”

For the first time in a long time, Sasuke looked startled. “What?”

Naruto stood, the fox cradled in his arms. He couldn’t meet Sasuke’s eyes. “I’ll leave with him. You don’t have to go anywhere.”

“I—Naruto—“

Purpose in his stride, Naruto walked past Sasuke and out of their tiny apartment, shutting his door behind him, trying not to think about how small Sasuke had sounded when he said his name.

-

“You’re a mess,” Gaara noted sombrely, quickly ushering Naruto into his house and peeling his wet coat off him, throwing it into the corner and peering into the box in Naruto’s arms. “Is that him?”

Naruto nodded dumbly, still reeling from his altercation with Sasuke. Gaara, eyes gentle and understanding, put a hand on his back and gently steered him towards the bathroom, prying the box from his cold fingers. 

“There’s a change of clothes in there,” Gaara said, his tone gentle but firm, snapping Naruto out of his daze. “Take a shower, Shukaku and I will take care of your little friend.”

Naruto stood there rooted, even as his friend gently pushed him towards the bathroom. “But—“

“Naruto.” There was understanding in those eyes. “We’ll be alright.”

Naruto nodded again, for once the monologue in his mind completely silent but his thoughts still racing. His movements were mechanical, as if on autopilot, not really absorbing what he was doing at all, as he stripped and stepped into the shower. The warm water did help relax him slightly, and he blocked all thought of Sasuke out of his mind as the tension slowly bled out of his shoulders, washed away with the water from his skin. 

He couldn’t deal with that. Not now. 

Clean clothes and a warm house did wonders for his mood. Stepping out barefoot into the living room, he nearly cracked a smile as the sight of Gaara sitting cross-legged on the ground, with his usual pensive expression and a watchful eye over Shukaku, his tanuki, as he sniffed at Naruto’s fox with not a small amount of apprehension. The fox stared back at Shukaku haughtily, nose in the air but looking utterly relaxed for being under the scrutiny of an animal that was about three times his size. 

“They’re already getting along, huh?” Naruto half-laughed, settling himself on the floor by Gaara’s side. 

“Well, you know how much Shukaku likes visitors,” Gaara replies, without any change in his expression, and if Naruto hasn’t known him for all the time he had, he would have completely missed the sarcasm. “What are you going to name him?”

Naruto had an answer ready for that. “I think...Kurama sounds nice.”

“It does,” Gaara nodded, not questioning for a second that Naruto was going to keep a fox despite having walked out of his house because of his best friend. That was the thing about the redhead—his love was unconditional, unquestioning. Naruto had never appreciated him more. “I heated up some milk for him, but he doesn’t seem to be in the mood for any.”

“Let me try,” Naruto said, taking the shallow bowl from him and gently picking Kurama up, much to Shukaku’s chagrin, who nosed into Gaara’s side for his own share of attention. To Naruto’s delight, Kurama nuzzled into his hand, before tentatively sticking his tongue into his milk. 

“He likes you,” Gaara observed, cracking one of his rare smiles. “You did rescue him, after all.”

That brought a smile to Naruto’s face—he heard the genuineness behind his friend’s words. _You did rescue me, after all. I know how he feels._

“Thank you,” Naruto said softly. “For everything.”

Gaara nodded. “You’re most welcome.” A pause. “What are you going to now?”

“I don’t know, honestly.” Naruto said. He hadn’t explained the gravity of what had happened to Gaara, even though his friend would have deduced it by now. “I...guess I’ll deal with it later.”

“Okay,” Gaara said, rising to his feet and holding his hand out to Naruto to help him up. His grip was solid, steady, exactly what Naruto needed. “Let’s get something to eat.”

Kurama, bored with his milk, found his way into Naruto’s pocket comfortably, closing his eyes and curling into a ball. Naruto smiled fondly, suddenly feeling warm. As he followed Gaara to the table, Shukaku trotting at his heels and hankering for a bite, his heart panged suddenly, the image of Sasuke alone in their dark little apartment flashing through his mind. 

He shook his head clear. There was time to think over things, yet. 

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are drooled over! You can find me on discord as Ashen#7379!


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